Traditionally, rolled metal strip stock, such as steel, aluminum or copper strip, is cooled by a variety of runout cooling systems of varying degrees of sophistication. In all such cases, difficulty has been encountered in controlling the cooling of the product, generally due to an insufficiency of water in the system which commonly relies on various arrangements of spray nozzles or other devices which direct individual streams of water onto the strip stock while it is moving.
There has been particular difficulty in the prior art in connection with cooling heavier gage products running at high speeds. It is in connection with these particular problems and deficiencies in the prior art that the present invention has been conceived and developed to allow a more controlled and rapid cooling of the product in various gages while moving at high speed. Experimentation and mathematical analysis has made possible a more complete understanding of the way in which a laminar cooling system functions, and because of this knowledge, it is now possible to predict the approximate cooling efficiency and capacity of a given laminar header or manifold according to the invention, so that the same can be designed accurately for various installations where the requirements differ.
The invention is characterized by structural simplicity and extreme ruggedness and durability, so that it can survive the rugged environment which prevails around metal rolling mills. The cooling water distribution headers or manifolds can be constructed and sized and positioned to provide precisely the optimum volume of coolant across the full width of the strip and at proper intervals along the moving strip to produce the ideal cooling parameters. This is something which has not been attainable in the prior art.
In one form of the invention, the water curtain discharge slot is adjustable by simplified means, and in a second form of the invention, control is attained through valving and adjustability of the manifold outlet is not required.